Safeguarding autonomy: A focus on machine learning decision systems

As global discourse on AI regulation gains momentum, this paper focuses on delineating the impact of ML on autonomy and fostering awareness. Respect for autonomy is a basic principle in bioethics that establishes people as decision-makers. While the concept of autonomy in the context of ML appears in several European normative publications, it remains a theoretical concept that has yet to be widely accepted in ML practice. Our contribution is to bridge the gap between theory and practice in ML by encouraging the respect of autonomy in ML-aided decision-making. We do this by proposing a clear framework for operationalizing autonomy and identifying the conditioning factors that currently prevent it. Consequently, we focus on the different stages of the ML pipeline to identify the potential effects on ML end-users’ autonomy. To improve its practical utility, we propose a related question for each detected impact, offering guidance for identifying possible focus points to respect ML end-users autonomy in decision-making.